Family Planning in Botswana, Kenya and Zimbabwe

Contraceptive Prevalence Surveys conducted in 1984 in Botswana Kenya and Zimbabwe indicate that these 3 countries have achieved relatively high contraceptive prevalence rates for Sub-Saharan Africa: 28% of currently married women in Botswana; 17% in Kenya; and 38% in Zimbabwe reported using a family planning method at the time of the survey. Modern methods constituted 1/2 to 2/3 of contraceptive use in each country. Contraceptive practice in Botswana is about evenly divided between women who want to space childbearing and women who want to limit their family size. A larger proportion of women in Kenya are using contraceptives to limit family size than are using them to space their children while the opposite is true in Zimbabwe. In Botswana and Zimbabwe approximately 70% of women reported that they know a source where they can obtain contraceptives and a majority of those knowing a source say it is within 30 minutes travel time. Contraceptives are perceived to be less accessible in Kenya where only 48% of women know a source and fewer than 1/2 of those find it easily accessible. Despite relatively high contraceptive prevalence rates total fertility rates remain high--6.5 in Botswana and Zimbabwe and 7.7 in Kenya. However an average of 34% of women in the 3 countries said they wanted to stop childbearing a considerably higher proportion than the overall average of 10% reported in earlier World Fertility Surveys conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa. (Authors modified)